Law clerk sues Bucyrus City Council

BUCYRUS In a civil suit filed in Crawford County Common Pleas Court, the Bucyrus City Council is accused of failing to properly prepare, file and maintain the minutes of several dozen committee meetings over the past three years.

The suit, brought by Vicki Dishon, of Bucyrus, further alleges that the city council, during that span of time, failed to establish a reasonable method whereby persons could determine the time, place and purpose of regular council and committee meetings.

Dishon, who works as the law clerk in Bucyrus City Hall, has been a thorn in council’s side for several years. She filed a similar civil suit against the council in 2003, claiming the body had violated the state’s open-meetings law five times from 2001 to 2003 by going into closed, executive session without specifying a purpose, a violation of Ohio’s Sunshine Law.

That lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice by Common Pleas Court Judge Russell B. Wiseman, meaning Dishon was enjoined from suing council on identical grounds in the future.

Dishon would not speak on the record about her new lawsuit, and council President Sis Love refrained from comment on grounds that the litigation was active.

The case filing is 96 counts long, and lists nearly eight dozen instances in which she alleges council failed to state the purpose of its meetings or failed to properly file and maintain meeting minutes. Dishon is seeking a civil forfeiture of $500 on each count, which would come to nearly $50,000 if awarded.

Dishon’s lawsuit names as defendants the council, council President Sis Love, council members Richard Rockwell, Wanda Sharrock, John Walker, Bruce Truka, Monica Sack, William O’Rourke and Steven Pifer and former council member Daniel Wirebaugh.

The case filing includes as exhibits public notices of several council committee meetings in 2012, 2013 and early 2014 that failed to include agendas. In recent months the council’s meeting notices have included agenda items, and have been routinely disseminated to the media and posted on the city’s website days in advance.

In 2007, under pressure from Dishon, council voted to allow the public to speak at the beginning of full council meetings, after committee and officer reports are read and again after proposed legislation is read, with council member Rockwell the only one to vote against the change.

“I am glad we get more of an opportunity to speak at council meetings,” Dishon said then.

In 2003, Dishon battled council over $2,224.70 in legal fees she incurred after discovering evidence of pornography on the city-owned computer she shared with former law director Andrew Motter. Her evidence resulted in Motter pleading no contest to misuse of a city computer, a misdemeanor, and being forced to resign his post.

Dishon’s suit against the council for alleged repeat violations of the state’s Sunshine Law followed shortly thereafter.

Council eventually allowed Dishon to recoup her legal fees from the Motter case after she threatened to file 239 additional allegations of open-meeting violations. In an editorial published March 20, 2004, The Telegraph-Forum commented on the matter.

“We confess we had looked forward to covering Dishon vs. City of Bucyrus in Common Pleas Court and the opportunity to shine a spotlight on a frequently disregarded provision of a state law designed to keep the public’s business within view of the public’s eye,” this newspaper wrote then.

“We hope this message to public boards, bodies, commissions and committees doesn’t get lost in the silence.”